Attending
writers conference can be overwhelming. There's so much to learn, ask, and
experience. How do you process it all? One piece of advice that was useful to me
when I started going to writers' conferences was "start small," so that's what I would suggest. If you are uneasy or unsure about going to a conference then before
you attend a huge one like the American Christian Fiction Writers Conference,
you should search for smaller ones in your surrounding area. I live in
Louisiana, so I searched for conferences nearby. I typed in something like
"Louisiana Christian writers conference" into Google. I have attended the East
Texas Christian Writers Conference in Marshall, Texas and the Southern Christian
Writers Conference in Tuscaloosa, Alabama. They were both wonderful and modestly
priced. There was one-on-one time with the authors and industry professionals in
attendance and I felt the classes were small enough where I could ask questions
and not feel like hundreds of eyes were on me. :)

A good piece of advice
that Hartline literary agent Terry Burns gives first-time conference goers is
that you must develop a “filter” to only take in the limited amount of
information you need at this particular part of your writing journey. If you
don't do this, you will easily be overwhelmed and miss what you need to know
right now.